After their wicked collision last Friday at Ivor Wynne Stadium - sending Tucker to the hospital with two fractured vertebrae in his neck - Bradley's name will always be tied to the Edmonton Eskimos star receiver.

But Bradley - a Hamilton Tiger-Cat defensive back - wants to make it clear there was no intention to hurt Tucker on the final play of the third quarter.

"My heart goes out to his family. I want to let him know that everybody is praying for him," said Bradley after yesterday's Tiger-Cats practice in Steeltown.

"All I was trying to do was make a play. My intention was to never hurt anybody.

"Everybody is playing the game to have fun."

In a classy move, Bradley was actually planning to stop at the Hamilton General Hospital yesterday to see Tucker.

The injury has left Tucker's playing career in doubt.

And it all happened on a simple two-yard pass play with the Tiger-Cats playing in a zone defence.

"He was coming up field and I was coming downhill and it was just a collision," explained Bradley.

It has been described as a helmet-to-helmet collision.

But the four-year CFL veteran isn't quite sure if it was his helmet or his shoulder that smashed into Tucker.

What is clear is that Bradley hurt one arm on the play, which forced him to watch yesterday's practice.

"Right now my shoulder is real sore. When I hit him my whole arm went numb," he stated. "But I got all the feeling back in my arm now."

Until the play last Friday, Bradley didn't really have a history with Tucker.

"Jason is a respected receiver in this league," explained the 28-year-old import.

"I talked to him on the field a little bit (in the past). But I mostly talked to Jason Goss (a former Ticat) about him. They went to TCU (Texas Christian University) together."

Now - unfortunately - Tucker and Bradley will always have something in common: an innocent-looking play on a hot Hamilton night.

"Both of us were just trying to make a play," said Bradley, who was surprised to hear of the damage to Tucker's neck.